Ai Tenchi Muyo! The Complete Series

In Japan, the first Tenchi Muyo anime appeared in 1992 and essentially became an industry tent pole, with a whole host of music CDs, radio shows, manga, etc., centered on characters and concepts from the time-tested "harem comedy" narrative (young guy is fawned over by nubile females, mostly alien). Newbies will likely be bewildered by this spin-off that features a gimmick: really short episodes (50 in all) running four minutes each. Everything here happens at a high-speed pace, which will be confusing to those unfamiliar with chara in-jokes and geographical references. Tenchi, who started out as a schoolboy son of a temple priest, is now a mild-mannered 22-year-old teacher at a rural girls’ school, cohabiting chastely with his usual supporting pursuers, who include Ryoko, the voluptuous space pirate, and interplanetary royal princesses Ayeka and Sasami. Episodes center on preparations for a Cultural Festival, shenanigans with the school’s giant guardian robo, nude-bathing cheesecake, and an ongoing treasure hunt connected to a dimensional rift in ancient times. In the concluding episodes these separate narrative strands combine to focus on a danger that threatens the whole galaxy (it turns out that Tenchi is actually on a secret mission in a sort of alternative reality). Tenchi remains incredibly colorless despite all of the female fascination, which some fans say is the joke. Presenting all 50 episodes from 2014 in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, rated TV-14, this is an optional purchase. (C. Cassady)